Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability

(Paperback)

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Description

Building Accessinvestigates twentieth-century strategies for designing the world with disability in mind. Illustrated with a wealth of rare archival materials, this book brings together scientific, social, and political histories in what is not only the pioneering critical account of Universal Design but also a deep engagement with the politics of knowing, making, and belonging in twentieth-century United States.

Reviews

"Building Access is a seminal text that will be received with acclaim and become well-known for its reconstruction of how we think about access, disability, and design."Rob Imrie, Goldsmiths University of London

"Aimi Hamraie gifts us with a rare kind of book, one that skillfully weaves critical disability studies together with technology studies and architectural history to unpack the American project of designing and making built environments purportedly usable by all. They ask us to think harder about who counts as the everyone of Universal Design, and how knowledge of body variability is created. Crucially, the book probes the ways disability access politics is deeply entangled with race through whiteness, bodily norms, activism, and practices material segregation. Anyone who cares about the built environment, technoscience, or disability politics will want to read this important book."Michelle Murphy, University of Toronto

"Building Access is a persuasive, beautiful, and intrepidly researched book."New Books Network

"Hamraies skill in detailing the struggle, triumphs and ironies of this history makes this book a valuable addition to any critical architecture reading list."Journal of Design History

Author Bio

Aimi Hamraie is assistant professor of Medicine, Health, and Society and American studies at Vanderbilt University.